


Oh, How Pretty is the Middle of June

by moonlight_mile



Series: as we gather 'round this table [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Amber called this, Heartwarming, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 11:14:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10763115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlight_mile/pseuds/moonlight_mile
Summary: "And love is a thing that you can't defineThough you try with all your might through the riddles and rhymesIt'll fly you like a kite; it'll throw you to the groundBut it's the best thing I have found."





	Oh, How Pretty is the Middle of June

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'm at a roadblock with the fic I'm currently working on, I decided to revisit this 'verse and write a short timestamp six months after the end of An Honest Song. I absolutely adore writing Louis and his family in this setting, but I wanted to focus on Harry's POV this time.
> 
> Big, big thanks to [Amber](http://loveloveolivia.tumblr.com) for being the best beta and cheerleader in the world!
> 
> Title is from the song Middle of June by Noah Gundersen.

At 7:43 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, Harry is frantically tearing through the living room in his and Louis’ apartment.

“I swear to god, Louis, why do we even have that key holder next to the door if you refuse to ever hang the car keys there?” he mutters, knowing that Louis can’t hear him from their bedroom, where he’s currently digging through the dirty clothes hamper in what has proven, thus far, to be a fruitless search.

“Found them!” Harry hears a shout from the second bedroom – the one that hadn’t been his since after Christmas. Fizzy emerges triumphantly, the keys to Louis’ Subaru in hand.

Harry and Louis had barely enjoyed five months of living together as a couple when Fizzy, fresh out of her first year of college and unwilling to move back to Waynesville for the summer, had asked to come visit for a week or two. It was coming up on two months, now, and she’d only gone home once. Harry has a sneaking suspicion that was Fizzy’s plan all along, but he and Louis don’t mind letting her think she’s pulling one over on them.

Louis pokes his head out of the bedroom at the other end of the hall from her.

“Why the fuck do you have my keys?”

“Well, darling brother, if you and your husband here –”

“Hey! Not yet, he isn’t!” Louis interjects.

“Whatever. If y’all hadn’t insisted on getting hammered off your asses last night, I wouldn’t have had to drive us all home.” Fizzy crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. They’d all gone out for dinner, but then a text from Niall had turned that into drinks and karaoke, and after Louis’ incredibly enthusiastic rendition of Goodbye Earl, Harry’s memories had gone a little blurry. Fizzy had not appreciated being the only underage person in the group, but Louis and Harry had taken complete advantage of the fact that they’d have a guaranteed designated driver.

“Blah blah blah, come on, we have the keys now, let’s go,” Louis grumbles. “It’s gonna be a fucking nightmare trying to find somewhere to park.”

Fizzy ducks into the bathroom one last time as Harry checks to make sure all the lights are off. Louis shuts the bedroom door behind him, backpack on and several large pieces of poster board under his arm. He meets Harry by the door, and as they’re waiting for Fizzy, he leans up to kiss Harry’s cheek.

“You ready for this, my love?”

“Yeah,” Harry grins at him. “I think I am.”

+++

From 8:17 until 8:39 a.m., Louis circles several blocks in the downtown Nashville area, with Fizzy and Harry both shouting out when they think they see a spot he can manage to squeeze his car into. Inevitably, there’s a “No Parking” sign, or a motorcycle hidden from view until they get closer, or Louis makes an executive decision that they’re not close enough and he refuses to walk that far with a hangover.

“I don’t know why you’re complaining about having to walk,” Fizzy grumbles from the backseat. “We’re literally going to a march. That’s what we’re going to be doing. Walking.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t feel like making myself do any unnecessary walking on top of that.”

Harry rolls his eyes and leans on his window. Their bickering isn’t doing his own hangover any favors. He spots movement just down the block, and realizes it’s a car pulling away from the curb. “LOU! FUCK! GO!”

Louis punches the accelerator, slightly throwing Fizzy back from where she’d been leaning forward to argue with Louis.

“Hey!” she protests.

Louis just shrugs, then expertly parallel parks in the newly emptied spot. They all pile out of the car and make their way around to the back, where Harry carefully removes the poster board signs covered in glitter and bright paint, checking to make sure none of them are ripped or smudged. He separates them carefully, handing them to Fizzy and Louis.

Louis grins as he takes his sign (“ _Y’ALL MEANS ALL_ ” in glitter paint, on a rainbow background). Harry puts the other two signs back in the car for a moment to pull off his t-shirt, carefully inspecting his rainbow painted torso. Fizzy gives him a thumbs up and Louis snorts in amusement.

“You will use literally any excuse to get naked.”

Harry flips him off and turns to pick up his own sign – “ _Don’t Mind My Loudmouth Boyfriend_ ” with an arrow helpfully pointing to the left.

Fizzy adjusts her fanny pack – “I’m not carrying your shit in my backpack. Borrow one of Harry’s dorky fanny packs,” Louis had firmly insisted – and stands in front of the open trunk of Louis’ car. She looks down at her sign for a moment before reaching out, hands slightly trembling.

“You know you don’t have to,” Louis says quietly as he steps closer to her and wraps an arm around her shoulders. “We made you a backup sign for a reason. It’s scary.”  
Fizzy tilts her chin up defiantly and squares her shoulders. “Nope, no way,” she says, taking a deep breath. “It’s time to do this.”

Harry and Louis descend on her from both sides, squeezing her tightly and smacking wet kisses on her cheeks.

“Stop, stop!” Fizzy giggles, batting them away. “Y’all are gonna fuck up my makeup!”

They all stop short when they hear the muffled sound of a phone ringing.

“That’s you, Harry,” Louis says, turning his back to Harry so that he can dig in his backpack for his phone. “I’m not really sure where it ended up, good luck finding it.”

Harry begins pulling out water bottles, sunscreen, glitter body spray, and various other items that Louis had insisted they might need. The phone stops ringing, and Harry groans in frustration. “Great,” he mutters. “Never gonna find it now.”

The words have barely left his mouth when the phone immediately begins ringing again. Harry finds it near the bottom of the bag and pulls it out, quickly answering the call.

“Hey, Mama Jay,” Harry answers. Louis and Fizzy immediately pull out both of their phones and groan at the numerous missed calls from their mother.

Harry laughs and pulls the phone away from his ear, putting the call on speaker.

_“Fiz, honey, how are you?”_ Jay’s voice comes through, tinny because of the phone connection, but still full of warmth.

“I’m good, Mama,” Fizzy answers. “I’m real good.”

_“I’m so proud of you, baby,”_ Jay says, and there’s definitely a hint of tearfulness to it.

Fizzy wipes at her eyes, careful of her meticulously applied makeup. “Mama, stop it, don’t make me cry!”

_“I can’t help it, honey!”_ Jay laughs. _“I’m so proud of all of my babies. Even when they leave their phones on silent and forget to send me the pictures they promised.”_

Fizzy rolls her eyes and laughs good-naturedly. “Sorry, Mama,” she says ruefully. “We’ll get right on that. We’ve gotta go line up in like five minutes.”

_“I’ll let y’all go! Send me those pictures before you do anything else!”_ Jay demands. _“Love y’all! Have fun!”_

Harry ends the call and opens the camera app. “Lou, Fiz, get your signs and stand over there.”

They stand next to each other, brilliant grins on each of their faces, signs held proudly in front of them. Harry’s eyes get a little watery from the sheer joy on their faces, in the air, in his heart. He centers them in the frame ands counts down from three. Just as he says, “One!” Louis turns and lays a smacking kiss on Fizzy’s cheek, and her eyes close as she throws her head back in laughter. Harry shields his phone screen with his hand and takes a look at the photo.

Onscreen, Louis’ sign is dropped to the side, leaving Fizzy’s sign as the sole focus of the shot. On a pink, lavender, and blue background, bold black letters proclaim, “ _LET’S GET ONE THING STRAIGHT – I’M NOT_ ” and underneath that, “ _MY FIRST PRIDE – COME SAY HI TO A BABY BI!_ ”

Harry sends the photo off to Jay and immediately gets a string of heart and rainbow emojis in response. He grins, throws his phone back in Louis’ backpack, and stows his sign under his arm to lace their fingers together. Louis grins at him and they head down the street, joining the growing crowd of others covered in rainbows and glitter, and Harry thinks this might be the happiest day of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! [Come say hi on tumblr!](http://wildwomanofthewoods.tumblr.com)


End file.
